When Good Ghouls Go Bad

by R.L. Stine

Evil ghouls will raise from their graves if anyone celebrates Halloween! Is this old town legend true? The kids of Walker Falls are about to find out!

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2001

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

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Reviews

[Pulp_Fiction_Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an almost completely faithful adaptation of the movie scene for scene but also in how well it conveyed the real heart that the source material did so well. There's a couple of small scenes missing that I loved from the movie but with this being written in first person I understand why they had to be cut. This reads very much like the very best 90's goosebumps books and I enjoyed this every bit as much as the movie.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relatively deserving of a five star rating. This book is an instant Halloween classic—or rather it should’ve been. Sad to see it be so unpopular and it not getting read, nor the movie getting much love. It’s truly an underrated story in the giant R.L. Stine catalogue. The main thing I loved about the story was Uncle Fred. He single-handedly carried this book, as he is a very funny and nonchalant guy that is fun to read about. The funeral scene was depressing yet hilarious. The other characters were all pretty darn good, though I will say Coach Kankel is much better in the film. The story is very atmospheric when it comes to Halloween; you get the Halloween feel in the haunted house and the way everyone acts about to holiday, yet there is a lack of decorations and even any Halloween festivities, which is a cool aspect of the story, how it feels so halloween-like yet has most of the halloween elements lost. Impressive! The book is fun throughout its entirety and has solid writing throughout, and is surprisingly accurate to the film. Perfect length and pacing. The final chapters are some of Stine’s most vivid and compelling writing ever, and the legend involving Curtis is really neat with some excellent reveals—but sadly those reveals do bring forth a small issue which is plot holes (aka how does thing happen when thing invoking thing ain’t even true? type shit). Also, incest plot line was about to start at the end lol. The book gets a 10/10, rounded of course and is a very low ten-out-of-ten still. I highly recommend checking out the film for free on YouTube if you enjoyed this. I want a hot wheels track running into my grave when I die.

[Andrew kutz · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 it was ok it wasn't the worst book I have read, but it was just ok, I do love R.L. Stine. and if I was still a little kid I think I would like it more, but its just not my favorite. but its still sweet. and could help someone who's young maybe learn how to cope with death, but hopefully they won't start thinking that if someone dies they will magically come back to life. if you like R.L. Stine you can read and this is just my opinion you can make your own.

[Jaimini Mehta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely try to the film! Love the film and now the book 🤓

[The Gooseblock Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too similar to the movie for me to care very much, and i know its supposed to be an adaptation. This is beat by beat the same story.

[Nathan Forester · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to be very much afraid of this book due to the cover which had Christopher Lloyd as a zombie on it, but I realize now that a lot of 90s and 2000s kids grew up with this movie on ABC family and likely had good memories of it, I do like the plot and the halloween theme.

[Don LaFountaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this is a children's book, I have enjoyed the movie so much that I wanted to read the book too. I was not disappointed as enjoyed the book as much as the movie.

Walker Falls is a tiny mid-west town that Danny Walker moves to with his father, after his parents divorced. It is named after his grandfather, Fred Walker, who build the town and had a chocolate factory that supported the community. The middle school had a contest that had the kids make a statue of their hero, and the winner would be placed in the center of town. That was until the Halloween day that Curtis Danko was killed in the school kiln. The town bully, Michael Kankel, found his ashes the next day and a message stating that if Walker Falls even had another Halloween, that he would rise from the grave and destroy everyone in the town. Mike then came out of the kiln screaming that his eyes almost were burned out of his head from Curtis' statue. It was covered and placed in the crypt with Curtis' remains.

That did not stop the Danny and "Uncle Fred", (as he was known to everyone) from decorating their house with Halloween stuff, which only upset the rest of the townspeople. Along with this, Danny's father James was working on starting to get the factory running again. After a town meeting where James discusses his plans for a Halloween Spooktacular on October 31st, the townspeople were ready to run the family out of town.

The morning after the town meeting, there were decorations all over the town. The townspeople were waiting outside their house to accuse the Walker's of setting it up. Afterwards, everyone walked to the town center where a pile of pumpkins were stacked. Uncle Fred grabbed one, and was struck dead by the falling pumpkins.

That's when things started to happen. Ryan Kankel, the son of the town bully, and a bully himself, stole a statue from Curtis Danko's crypt. Shortly thereafter, zombies started to rise from the grave, including Curtis Danko. The townspeople were herded to Curtis' old house where the kids were having a Halloween party, and coincidentally where the statue was. It was here that Curtis Danko unveiled the statue, which was a lifelike representation of...Uncle Fred Walker.

This is a fun children's book about Halloween, that goes well with the movie of the same name. Even as an adult, it was worth reading. I would recommend this book to any adult, as well as kids between the ages 8 - 12.

[Brigitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the movie as a kid. Few things scared me more than Curtis Danko. But, unlike most of Stine’s stories, it was surprisingly heart-warming, as well as delightfully spooky. Watched the movie again this year and it holds up as a cute Halloween movie for kids. (I’ll watch anything with Christopher Lloyd.) Thought I’d read the book too and it was a fun, easy read that was very enjoyable. I picked it up a few times instead of my Stephen King. I just prefer Stine’s stories overall—no wonder he sells more books than the “King of Horror.” Rightly so.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was the book that accompanies the Halloween movie since it came out at the same time. If you prefer books to movies then I'd choose it, but this movie is just as entertaining and it even has Christopher Lloyd in it. Who could resist that? It's become a holiday tradition in our house.

[Savannah S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an amazing book with good dialogue and a creative background. Although, I think the story has nothing to do with the title, it has twists that you would never see coming, this truly is a good read.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was made into a film featuring Joe Pichler, Tom Amandes, Joe Clements and Christopher Lloyd.

[Restu]

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